Does the priest remember your sins?

[breezeenroute]

I think I remember hearing somewhere that after you leave the confessional the priest doesn't remember anything you said. The reason being the priest wouldn't be able to handle it all. Is this a catholic belief? I can't remember where I heard it so I don't know if it came from a reliable source. Just curious

[ConstantineTG]

Originally Posted by breezeenroute

I think I remember hearing somewhere that after you leave the confessional the priest doesn't remember anything you said. The reason being the priest wouldn't be able to handle it all. Is this a catholic belief? I can't remember where I heard it so I don't know if it came from a reliable source. Just curious

The priest can remember if he chooses to. Most people who have regular confessors who are also their spiritual directors would need the priest to remember so that he can guide them in overcoming their habit of sin.

[achmafooma]

I have heard some Priests say that they are unable to remember anything revealed to them in the Confessional, but as far as I know most do not have this gift. It is certainly not a teaching of the Church that Priests don't remember what you say in the Confessional.

It is, however, Church teaching that a Priest may never reveal what he learns in the Confessional, even to the person who confessed it [unless that person brings it up first and/or gives him permission].

As a practical matter, however, I think most Priests would be hard-pressed to distinctly remember a particular individuals' confession...simply because he hears so many of them. Usually at my Parish we have ten or twenty people confessing at each scheduled time (sometimes more, sometimes less) between two Priests. I would guess that only particularly distinct or unique confessions would 'stick' in their memories when they hear 20 or more confessions each and every week!

That might be different at a smaller Parish, of course.

[Senior Pal]

I wonder if a confession to the FR. can be used against me in court,

[GEddie]

A priest's mind works the same way as anybody else's; he has no perfect command of his memory or forgetting.

However, a priest I trust says that nothing is very memorable about confession. Hearing the same sins thousands of times ceases to impress the mind.

I'd not worry that your confessor would remember your sins indefinitely.


God Bless and ICXC NIKA

[maryj]

Originally Posted by Senior Pal

I wonder if a confession to the FR. can be used against me in court,

No

[JGMendes4049]

Originally Posted by Senior Pal

I wonder if a confession to the FR. can be used against me in court,

It cannot be.

[Senior Pal]

Originally Posted by JGMendes4049

It cannot be.

Hey that's a relief. Thanks.

[choliks]

Originally Posted by Senior Pal

Hey that's a relief. Thanks.

That's because he's more accountable to the "Highest" court.

[NewEnglandPriest]

Originally Posted by breezeenroute

I think I remember hearing somewhere that after you leave the confessional the priest doesn't remember anything you said. The reason being the priest wouldn't be able to handle it all. Is this a catholic belief? I can't remember where I heard it so I don't know if it came from a reliable source. Just curious

No, we do not remember the sins of penitents. The reason is that we hear so many confessions its just naturally hard to keep track of who said what. On top of that we've simply not interested in remembering, there's no reason to.

So we hear x number of confessions and we're making zero effort to remember who said what, that means we don't remember confessions.

[NewEnglandPriest]

Originally Posted by Senior Pal

I wonder if a confession to the FR. can be used against me in court,

1. A priest is forbidden by canon law to ever reveal anything he heard in confession. The punishment for doing so is automatic excommunication.

2. In the USA there's a legal precedent called "reasonable expectation of privacy." This precedent means that even if the priest was willing to testify the court would not accept the testimony. This precedent also means, and has been applied, that if someone video/audio taped the confession the evidence would not be accepted by the court.

[CuriousInIL]

Originally Posted by Senior Pal

I wonder if a confession to the FR. can be used against me in court,

The "no" answers are correct so long as your phrase "a confession to the FR" means "the revealing of sins during sacramental confession to a Catholic priest for the purpose of seeking absolution."

[MartyrForJesus]

Originally Posted by NewEnglandPries

1. A priest is forbidden by canon law to ever reveal anything he heard in confession. The punishment for doing so is automatic excommunication.

2. In the USA there's a legal precedent called "reasonable expectation of privacy." This precedent means that even if the priest was willing to testify the court would not accept the testimony. This precedent also means, and has been applied, that if someone video/audio taped the confession the evidence would not be accepted by the court.

Wow. That is a very good thing.

[NewEnglandPriest]

Originally Posted by MartyrForJesus

Wow. That is a very good thing.

There was actually a fairly recent example of this:

A federal court reinforced the inviolability of the Catholic seal of confession when the judge refused to allow law enforcement officials to use the surreptitiously wiretapped confession of a prisoner to a Catholic priest.

[Phaedra777]

Originally Posted by NewEnglandPries

There was actually a fairly recent example of this:

A federal court reinforced the inviolability of the Catholic seal of confession when the judge refused to allow law enforcement officials to use the surreptitiously wiretapped confession of a prisoner to a Catholic priest.

Thanks for posting that link. I first thought the police had bugged the confessionals! And perhaps taped a bunch of folks while they were waiting for the suspect to confess.